M5Stack Launches PaperMono | Hacker News Reader

M5Stack Launches PaperMono

shop.m5stack.com

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I wouldn't anticipate too much from m5stack. They have a habit of developing products that are well designed from a physical standpoint... but when you try to develop with them one finds that the software and support needed to achieve your goals are half-baked and downright annoying. UIFlow1/2, I'm looking at you...

For reference, see the M5dinmeter

You can just use freeink.org to develop for it fwiw

These are an ESP32-S3 so you can use standard tools instead of whatever their offering is. Like EEZ Studio for GUI creation on LVGL.

Most of their products are ESP32 based I think.

I use plain arduino-cli to develop for them. UIFlow looks like an awful experience.

I have a tiny devboard collection habit, and gotta say coding agents work great with these. I've got a stick and a few dials running various hyper specific UIs for home assistant.

All of my devices from them are running micropython and my own code. Because they're all ESP32s and how everything works is documented.

The software to achieve my goals basically "just works".

as long as they include a schematic for their products, i'm set

i've always viewed m5stack / seeed / tindie as 'dev board marketplaces'; once i proof the rest of the design using their board, i take the known-working schematic and simply cut out the parts i dont want to spin rev 2, then once that is working i optimize the remaining parts for rev3, and project done :)

The better phrase is probably “reference design” marketplace. When I worked as an EE pretty much all but the hardest boards (which needed to be simulated) were glorified stripped down reference designs.

Especially seeing how M5Stack is majority-owned by Espressif.

That's been my experience too. That has lead to a small community and little real excitement around them.

That's when their documentation site is even up!

$65, out of stock, store link: https://shop.m5stack.com/products/m5papermono-with-lora-nfc-...

For the same ~ $55 as their lite model you get some other options:

slightly larger screen, plus a microphone and speaker: https://www.cnx-software.com/2026/08/05/zectrix-note-4-a-4-2...

same screen size with microphone and speaker, plus a magnetic fridge mount: https://www.cnx-software.com/2026/07/31/reterminal-sticky-3-...

I'd actually love something like the reTerminal sticky, but larger, for a fridge mounted home automation dashboard / calendar.

This has a frontlight. Also, the Zectrix has half the resolution

This is competition for the new XTEINK X4 Pro. Cost about half the price and is compatible with Crosspoint too.

I really don't understand why the XTEINK X4 Pro doesn't have a built-in USB-C port. A good part of the appeal of a device like that is less lock-in, but then you're stuck with a proprietary connector.

I guess this makes it a bit thinner and maybe a larger battery? I'd much rather have a slightly larger/thicker device and built-in USB-C.

I was disappointed by that too. I didn't think it would be hard to keep track of the pogo adapter for my x3, but I did end up losing it pretty quickly.

I really didn't want to buy the x4 pro, but I'm working on custom firmware for the x4 and I want to make sure it's compatible with the new device. Also, the lack of light was kind of annoying when I took the x4 on a camping trip. Not $100 worth annoying, but mildly annoying.

The "original" XTEINK X4 (not pro) has a USB-C port - that's explicitly why I bought it. It looks like it is out of production now. The good news is they are a proven, very popular device (it's just an e-ink display glued to an ESP32 with good third party support) so this class of device should be available on AliExpress soon if not already.

Just to point out the usb-c on the original x4 is for charging only.

Also firmware updates (on the non-locked variants), no?

What other potential uses are there? Uploading books without WiFi is the only one that comes to mind.

As far as I can tell, firmware updates are only via WiFi.

I got the Xteink X4 Pro a few days ago. I was so convinced everything these days has a USB-C port, I didn't even check. Honestly it's the only downside of the device, I love everything else about it. Sure, it's small, but it's almost entirely an advantage for me. I don't even think about "should I take it with me?" - I just do, which means I read much more. The light is great for reading in bed. And CrossPoint is super solid (flashing took a minute).

and has a touchscreen

And a RTC!

Redundant. ESP32 already has an internal RTC, with its own separate CPU and memory!

https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/stable/esp32/...

M5Stack and LilyGo products aren't necessarily end user ready. They are awkward middle grounds between shoebox sized literal circuit level prototype of smartphones and on-stage-CEO-showing-off prototypes. A bit like bake at home dough. Not competitors to real products.

From what I understand, they also have no certifications (CE/FCC/VCCI and similar) and cannot really be sold as consumer products, only as kits.

They do come with radio certifications and IIRC the European crossed bin sign. But yeah, not with full consumer product formalities.

I just for the one that's a hair smaller than the 4, flashed it with Crosspoint, and man, I'm pretty happy with it.

I have the older Paper-S3, which has better specs (larger screen and battery, 16-level grayscale) and also has a Crosspoint Reader port. Nice device, clearer screen than my Pocketbook Verse.

I think you can get 60 fps out of the old Paper S3. There was a gameboy emulator I saw recently that did it with some trickery I haven't reproduced on mine, but super impressive piece of hardware.

Yes, I was wondering if this was the Gameboy (capable) hardware.

this has a frontlight

I was just thinking that I could port rePalm to it. But for now I only support arm mips Riscv and aarch64. I guess maybe time for an LX7 port

This announcement is from a few days ago. And it seems everywhere is out-of-stock. Any news about potential availability? (In the US ideally.)

M5Stack's twitter says 2 to 3 months [0] to restock because they're out of eink driver ic.

When I submitted the story maybe 8 hours[1] after the announcement, it was already out of stock. This person says it sold out in 1 second - https://x.com/henry19840301/status/2090652363434647738 - if that's possible.

[0]:https://x.com/M5Stack/status/2091116748686922069

[1]:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49390702

Maybe "one second" was a poorly phrased colloquialism meaning "right away".

One can sign up for new product releases and if I paid attention to my marketing emails I could have clicked through. I'm guessing there are enough people who do combined with limited initial stock. We don't know.

Thanks for passing through the info for those of us not on Twitter!

i can't remember where i read it, but a few days ago i saw they didn't expect a restock until next year

I have the cardputer adv , stackchan a ai pyramid. Pyramid is a paperweight, the stack chan works OK sometimes. Not current 1.5 sometimes the is voice crackly and cuts out. Cardputer functions as marketed. I waiting for the cardputer zero to play with flipper and hack rf. Fingers crossed most likely my last purchase from them.

Sounds like the usual m5stack story, beautiful hardware, software as an afterthought. Out of stock everywhere already too.

These are hobbyist devices for makers... you shouldn't consider them an Apple-esque device that just works. M5 bring the hardware, you bring the software.

Yeah thats fair. Maybe when someone less lazy then me open sources a good product with it I'll try it out

nice, out of stock

would need a cheaper one esp32, display the same size, battery and few buttons, no need for lights or even chassis, can 3d print it. but only found screens too small or costs more than this device!

btw where does these ship from?

When I order from m5, box is postmarked from California

It has LoRa, so it will be interesting to see if meshtastic or meshcore support it.

Although it seems like it's OOS everywhere already.

This would be perfect for boats if only they ever decided to make a waterproof version. Of any of their displays, actually

nice flex

Used boats are shockingly inexpensive in the US.

The old saying that “there is nothing more expensive than a cheap aircraft” also applies to boats.

There's a reason it stands for Bring Over Another Thousand

Also:

The two best days in a boat owner’s life are the day they buy it and the day they sell it.

The definition of a boat is “a hole in the water into which you throw money”.

Never owned one, a friend did and it seemed that way, I suspect like many things it’s much cheaper if you can do the work yourself.

"If you can't afford to own two boats, you can't afford to own one boat."

Ex-boat owners, represent lol

I don't own a boat, but look to buy one and one of the odd things about this industry is very obsolete technology repackaged and sold at exorbitant proces. At least for electronics and monitoring a lot can be done cheaply by those who are skilled.

More expensive, smaller screen and lower resolution that the previous version

Tangent but I was surprised latest Kindles followed the form factor of Remarkable 2

So many of these M5Stack products are not actually stackable and have no physical relation to their "stack" system.

Ya, I noticed that with the CoreS3-SE being incompatible with the "Extension Port Module for Core2" (M123). I don't see a version compatible with the CoreS3.

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